could be procured. The reënlisted Mormons were sent for garrison duty to San Diego, where they were mustered out in March, 1848, many remaining in California.

Besides the Mormon battalion and the troops brought in by Kearny, the war brought to San Francisco a New York regiment under Colonel Stevenson. The men were of a high average of intelligence: they were mechanics, tradesmen, and young adventurers from the Eastern cities. Many of them had enlisted in the hope of securing grants of California land, while others no doubt were influenced by a mere desire to visit the Pacific coast. They left New York in three ships on September 26, 1846, and, rounding Cape Horn, arrived at San Francisco in March, 1847. Like the Mormons, they found only garrison duty before them, and were assigned to the various posts in California until the end of the war. Immediately after the treaty with Mexico. became known, August, 1848, they were mustered out to the number of six hundred and ninety-seven, and distributed themselves among the new settlements beginning to be formed by the Americans.

In addition to the several companies mentioned above, most of whose members remained to become settlers in the country, the years 1846 and 1847 brought appreciable numbers of emigrants overland. During the first of these years about two thousand persons took the trails to the Pacific, by far the larger number going to Oregon. But five or six hundred, in several parties, turned off from Fort Hall to go to California. One of these trains was the ill-fated "Donner party," concerning which so much has been written. This company, consisting of eighty-seven persons under the leadership of George Donner, separated from one of the large Oregon trains near Fort Bridger on July 2d. Following the recommendations of Hastings, who was at the gates of the Rockies for the purpose of drumming up parties for California, they took a new route around Salt Lake and met with serious obstacles; so that September had arrived before the train left Salt Lake. Nevertheless, they struck out

across the desert, reaching the main trail on the Humboldt late in the month. Many of their cattle had already perished, and the remainder, gaunt and worn by hard driving and scant food, were in no state to carry the party across the Sierras, covered as they already were with drifting snows. After spending the month of November in a desperate but fruitless attempt to cross the mountains, the survivors of the party established camps near Truckee Lake. Deaths had occurred at various points along the route, and in the biting cold of the Sierra winter the mortality rapidly increased. About the middle of December fifteen of the stronger men undertook to cross on snowshoes for the purpose of securing aid. Having rations for only six days, they were soon without food; and when the valley was reached, about the middle of January, only seven of the party remained alive. Some slight relief had been carried back to the main party by those who had succeeded in crossing before the snow became too deep. While the party was known to be belated, the general impression on the Sacramento was that they might survive by killing the animals, and accordingly no general effort had been made to succor them. When, however, seven starving men appeared, with their ghastly tale of destitution, Sutter and other settlers immediately fitted out a relief party, which succeeded in bringing in eighteen of the sufferers early in March.

Meantime, the story was repeated down the valley and about San Francisco Bay, arousing intense interest among all classes of men. Public meetings were held, subscriptions raised, and other parties hurried forward into the mountains with such supplies as they could carry. By these means the total of the survivors was raised to fortyeight lives. There were ghastly incidents of cruelty, of murder and cannibalism, but perhaps this tragedy had its uses, both in the universal feeling of charity engendered among the California people, and in the precautions which rendered impossible the recurrence of such a dire calamity.

The year 1847, while bringing in a large number of soldiers, the Mormon battalion, the New York regiment, and Kearny's troops,-brought less numerous additions by the overland route. California, as the scene of warfare, was not an attractive place just at this time, while the stories of the Donner disaster, reaching the ears of emigrants on the march, helped to turn the great majority toward Oregon. Several hundred, nevertheless, came on to California.

At the beginning of the year 1848, California was fully occupied by American troops, all under the command of Colonel Mason, the military governor. The country was peaceful, and the removal of commercial restrictions, and the security afforded property owners, was beginning to have its effect upon business. The presence in several of the towns of troops requiring large quantities of supplies was also a factor in the awakening commercial development. Improvements were being made at a rate altogether unprecedented, especially at San Francisco, which at the time of raising the American flag, July, 1846, had been an insignificant place even in California. Before May, 1848, it was a village of nine hundred people, with more than forty business houses, and considerable shipping. Its commission merchants were patronized by traders in Oregon and at Honolulu. It had two newspapers, the Californian, begun at Monterey in August, 1846, by two Americans, Walter Colton and Robert Semple; and the California Star, edited by Samuel Brannan, the Mormon elder who brought out the New York colony on the Brooklyn. A public school was about to be opened, but there were no religious services except those held by the Mormons.

The neighboring places, Santa Clara, San José, and Sonoma were growing somewhat, while new settlements were being made at other favorable spots, such as Napa and Benecia. Some of the incoming settlers had secured land in the Sacramento valley from Sutter and others holding large Mexican grants, and in the vicinity of the fort was a population of about three hundred whites.

towns.

The other towns had increased less rapidly than San Francisco, though everywhere could be seen the influence of American occupation. The total white population in the early months of 1848 is estimated at fourteen thousand, of which nearly one-half was foreign, mainly Americans. Three or four thousand semi-civilized Indians, the remains of the earlier mission populations, lived in and about the The Mormons were a vanishing element, because the decision of the church fathers to plant the New Zion on Salt Lake was drawing the California emigrants toward the interior. The prospects for a rapid increase in population from the United States were good, according to the conceptions of the time, when an addition of two or three thousand per year was regarded as a satisfactory growth. To all appearances Oregon and California were destined gradually to acquire the population necessary to develop their great natural resources and render them valuable Territories of the United States; but as to when either, or the two combined, should be entitled to statehood, was a question hardly yet considered.

CHAPTER XVII

THE GOLDEN STATE

We have already seen that Congress, in the early months of 1848, when legislating in favor of Oregon, refused to create a Territorial government for California, and that in the course of the discussion the California population was declared to be "half Indian." The incident shows the relative position occupied by Oregon and California in the public mind at this time. The northern territory was well known, it had been in the nation's eye for more than a quarter of a century, it was the first American territory on the Pacific and was occupied almost exclusively by Americans. These colonists had established a government; they had contributed powerfully to the settlement of the dispute with Great Britain; and latterly they had carried on a successful war against the Indians. The Americans in California had but ill defined claims upon the generosity of the government to offset these solid arguments of their neighbors; while the fact that so large a proportion of the people were natives or Mexicans excited prejudice against the country itself.

But California's opportunity was at hand, for gold was to be found within its borders. The story of the gold discovery is closely associated with the activities of Captain Sutter at New Helvetia. Sutter's fortunes had been profoundly affected by the events of 1846-1848, for Sutter's Fort was not only the rendezvous of incoming settlers from